AXA Life Insurance strengthens business resilience with ISO 22301 certification

BSI Group Japan K.K., the business standards company has certified AXA Life Insurance, Japan to ISO 22301, the international standard for Business Continuity Management Systems (BCMS).

The achievement of this standard provides assurance to AXA Life Insurance and its customers that it will be able to continue its daily operations regardless of any potential environmental threats. In addition, it has helped the business to address its strategy towards BCMS across its premises, including its new main branch office in Sapporo and its head office in Tokyo.

Unforeseen events and issues can play havoc for businesses, continually disrupting supply chains and impacting on a business’ profit margins. The challenge for any business is to keep their organization up and running, even when the unexpected threatens to disrupt operations and services.

“Since the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, our company has placed much emphasis on strengthening its business continuity plans. Achieving ISO 22301 certification with BSI is evidence of our commitment to customers, staff and our communities should our business be impacted by extreme weather conditions, system failures or other unplanned incidents. Compliance with this standard has enabled us to raise awareness of crisis management internally with our employees, further strengthen our BCMS and BCP (Business Continuity Planning), as well as allowing us to continue our customer centric culture,” comments an Axa Life spokesperson.

“Today, businesses operate in environments where they must prepare for the worst case scenario – as the Great East Japan Earthquake highlights. For the modern, nimble business, continuity planning is no longer an optional ‘extra’ – it is essential if they want to protect their assets and get back up and running as quickly as possible after disaster strikes.” says Naoyuki Takeo, Japan Managing Director, BSI.

ISO 22301 specifies the requirements for a management system to protect against, reduce the likelihood of, and ensure your business recovers from disruptive incidents. It aims to identify and manage current and future threats to a business, allows organisations to take a proactive approach to minimizing the impact of incidents and demonstrates resilience to customers, suppliers and for tender requests.